


Welcome: Gareth

by Rori_I



Series: Recruiting the S-400 [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Army, Background story, Banter, Military, New guy - Freeform, Recruitment, Special Forces, Special Forces Team S-400, after the world ends series, fresh face
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 08:21:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11100660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rori_I/pseuds/Rori_I
Summary: This is one of several stories about the After The World Ends characters (Rori I Original Series). The first few describe the recruitment of some members of Special Forces team S-400.Major Helena Areola does too much paperwork while she waits for the new Sergeant to report for duty. By the nervous ticks of her second-in-command, this Gareth Heights person promises to be either really good, or a serious wild card.Some minor flirting at the end.





	Welcome: Gareth

 

 

Major Helena Areola was reading through reports from the last training she ran. The team's routines needed tweaking to incorporate the new Slavic tactics – something she'd need to squeeze in between classes and the endless conversations with over-worried politicians she always had to bear.

Her responsibilities outside her unit included some small teaching jobs: on-base training, Academy lectures, interrogation techniques testing; she didn't have to put the greatest effort in them, since nobody really oversaw the work not relating to leading her Special Forces unit so vigorously, but she still did her best. It was who she was – an overachiever,. Nothing but the best was good enough.

Maybe that was why she liked Marcus Blackthorn so much.

The man was her second-in-command and his record was nothing short of impressive. He wore on his parade uniform as many reward markings as she did, considering she had been in the Army for ten years longer than him. Areola had never seen a soldier work so hard, achieve so much, be that good, and then somehow gain that little recognition! When she found him some years ago during his second visit at the Intensive training camp, during his fourth consecutive year attempting to enter the Forces, she had one of the toughest choices to make.

Very rarely were any Officers chosen from outside a Special unit. Typically, even if they were not promoted from within that particular team, they were reassigned from some other Company, so they knew the life, routines and hardships of a Special Forces soldier.

But Blackthorn had been a Lieutenant already when she'd recruited him. It was a difficult choice that could have backfired so badly that it could have shaken her entire team to the core. Instead, the man had continued his record of excellence under her command. Areola feared he might not get along with her team – that they wouldn't accept him, since they were all something between comrades and a family.

Blackthorn was somewhat sullen and hard to approach.

Instead somehow, he found common ground with both team leaders – Yao and Smith – and through them quickly won the others. Plus, in the few missions they ran with him, the structure and discipline he delivered to her free-spirited team had turned out invaluable. Areola had never regretted a recruitment decision less in her life. She had been so glad to hit the nail on the head, that she added Recruitment Officer assignment to his already existing Weapons Specialist one.

It has now been two years of the Captain picking new team members and he was doing brilliantly. Blackthorn had the sharp, scrupulous judgement Areola herself had been applying to every single one of her team members.

The Major had a feeling he'd be good at it, since at the time she recruited him, he also requested she take along a Private called Krum Suarez, who turned out to be a great marksman and a certain future candidate for a sniper. And, last year her Captain had brought her a freshman who had been applying for Special Forces since his enlistment at the age of nineteen. Private Ian Kemball had been with them for almost a year and Areola had hurried to promote him to Corporal as soon as their first mission together was over – the man was a gem! The Major had already given him the Technical Specialist assignment per her Second's recommendation and wished the kid would have been working with them earlier.

Now Blackthorn had found another person for her – somebody he claimed would fit with Yao's Squad as a Sergeant. Areola nowadays usually looked at the files after the newcomer had arrived to report for their first day on duty, and this time she made no exception. Although she found herself being curious who the man was – her Second seemed very anxious next to her, eyeing her tablet to check what she was reading.

The door slid open and in entered a freaking giant of a man! He looked at least two meters tall, with broad shoulders and an impressive muscle mass, which exceeded the power even in their toughest solders – like Goodkind or Yao. Involuntarily, the woman raised an eyebrow.

"Sergeant Gareth Heights, reporting for duty, Ma'am!"

"Good for you, big guy," she murmured from behind her desk. "Take a seat. Let's see what you brought me this time, Captain…"

Blackthorn tensed even more than before and now Areola was beyond curious. The giant man took the chair across from her and her Second sat at her side. She lid up her tablet and opened the file.

It took her a minute to realize why Blackthorn had been on edge; as she was scrolling the results from Sergeant Heights's last Advanced Training Camp and his exams, she noticed quickly those were his only results. Areola turned to the side and her face was stone.

"You brought me a first-timer! Are you joking?"

"Just give him a chance, Boss," Blackthorn insisted. "He's good."

"We have a mission upcoming, you want me to send my people with a newbie, first-timer Sergeant? You're sticking Yao with him too, you know that, right?"

"Yao will like him."

Areola growled. "Yao will swim in a Slavic toilet if you tell her to, sometimes I think she's more loyal to you than me. That doesn't change the fact you brought me a first-timer!"

"He's good." Blackthorn repeated simply and the Major sighed.

"Fine," the woman turned to Heights. "What's your magic, newbie?"

The man had handled the conversation about him with complete silence and a hard face. He seemed disappointed, but didn't utter a word until he was actually addressed. Now he gave his new Commander a confused look.

"Ma'am?"

"My Second thinks you're good. What won you his trust? You must have charmed him somehow!"

Heights grinned all of a sudden. By her side, Blackthorn's strict voice sounded in a somewhat sinister warning, " _Don't_!"

The Sergeant nevertheless announced smugly, "I seem to charm people off their senses – maybe that's my magic. Doesn't work too well on the Captain, though, but I'll keep trying—"

Areola burst into laughter and turned to Blackthorn with a grin as wide as the newbie's.

"I'll take him just so I can watch him make jokes at your expense! Ha!"

"Thank you, Boss," Blackthorn said sullenly. "Now you encouraged him and it'll never stop!"

"Serves you right, bringing me a first-timer!"

Blackthorn frowned and decided to stare at his tablet instead of answering. Areola was giggling. She waited.

"I thought an Engineering Specialist assignment would fit too, considering his degree and past work history." Blackthorn spoke at the end, still quite sullen. "On a trial period."

"Just for the next mission, yes." Areola agreed. "Get Yao's Squad a few training days, let's see how they like their new Sergeant. And," the Major's voice became firm as she tried to get her point across, "he is your responsibility. Understood?"

"Yes, Ma'am!" Blackthorn answered promptly.

"I am serious – he better impress me!"

"I'll make sure of it, Boss."

"Good man." Areola returned to her tablet. "Both of you can go."

She sent the men off with a secret look. The Sergeant was still grinning. As the door was sliding shut behind them, the Major heard the Sergeant ask seductively:

"So, when can I buy you a drink?"

The woman tried to hold her giggles, but then her Second's sullen response came, "Stop it  _now_! Which part of 'I don't go out with men' do you not understand?!"

Areola laughed really loudly, knowing Captain Blackthorn was how certainly trying to keep his blushing contained. And was probably failing. At the very least, the Major was sure Sergeant Gareth Heights will amuse her greatly!

 

[Original Series Website](aftertheworldends.tumblr.com)

**Author's Note:**

> Check out more about the series at:
> 
> aftertheworldends.tumblr.com


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